Jeffrey Godsick serves Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group as Executive Vice President, Global Partnerships and Brand Strategy and Head of Location Based Entertainment.
In this role, Godsick, under the leadership of SPE Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman and Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Josh Greenstein, is responsible for the studio’s continued global evolution and extension of its key brands, including Spider-Man, Venom, Hotel Transylvania, Ghostbusters, Jumanji, Bad Boys, Uncharted, and Men in Black, developing opportunities for the brands beyond the theatrical films.
Godsick develops long-term global branding initiatives for the studio’s tentpoles; leads the creation and execution of global promotions strategies for the studio’s films; oversees the Motion Picture Group’s efforts in Virtual Reality, both as a marketing tool and as a possible new entertainment option for consumers; and directs the studio’s location-based entertainment projects, including theme park lands and attractions.
Since his appointment to the studio in 2016 and increase in scope of responsibilities in 2017, Godsick has restructured and refocused the studio’s global promotions efforts, building broad relationships with companies; enhanced its collaboration across other Sony Corporation businesses; expanded SPE’s IP into cross-media opportunities; and developed new revenue streams.
Under Godsick’s leadership, his division has created record-breaking campaigns in support of franchise hits Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Jumanji, and Blade Runner 2049, among many other films.
He also oversees the company’s growing expansion into Location Based Entertainment, which includes an agreement with Merlin Entertainments to develop and operate attractions, rides, lands, retail outlets and themed hotel rooms based on the studio’s box office hit Jumanji film franchise across Merlin’s Resort Theme Parks and Waterparks in Europe and North America. Experiences launched as part of the agreement include Gardaland Resort’s “Jumanji®-The Adventure” and “Jumanji®-The Labyrinth” attractions in Italy, as well as the world’s first Jumanji themed land at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in the UK. Other location-based entertainment experiences around the world include “Uncharted: The Enigma of Penitence,” the only attraction in the world inspired by the movie, Uncharted, in Spain’s PortAventura World, and Columbia Pictures Aquaverse, the world’s first fully branded Columbia Pictures theme and water park, in Thailand.
Prior to joining Sony Pictures, Godsick served as President of Fox Consumer Products at Twentieth Century Fox, where he was responsible for over $2 billion annually in retail sales from licensed projects in overseeing all of Fox’s consumer products activities and leading the worldwide licensing strategy for Fox’s film and television properties. While there, he oversaw the growth of “The Simpsons” into one of the biggest licensed properties in the world, and from there, into a worldwide lifestyle brand, including the creation of Duff Beer and the opening of 50 Simpsons-themed retail stores in China. Other milestones at Fox include consumer products programs supporting the Avatar, Ice Age, “Empire,” “Sons of Anarchy,” and “Family Guy” franchises.
Godsick also served as senior executive vice president of marketing at Twentieth Century Fox’s film division, where, over the years, he oversaw Publicity, Promotions, Corporate Communications, and Content Creation; he also created and led the Digital Marketing division. During his tenure at Fox, Godsick oversaw the campaigns for such hits as Avatar (the highest grossing film of all time), the X-Men series (which relaunched the superhero franchise), Star Wars Episodes I-III, Planet of the Apes and Independence Day (the first film to cross $100 million in its opening weekend); in seven years heading publicity, Godsick’s films won the Publicists Guild Award for best Publicity Campaign four times. Godsick also served as president of Marketing for Fox Walden, a joint venture with Walden Media.
Godsick began his career at Columbia Pictures as an Assistant Field Manager, working on films including Ghostbusters.
